Primavera Sound considering leaving Barcelona and moving to Madrid
One of the festival directors of the festival, Gabi Ruiz, regrets in an interview with 'La Vanguardia' that the City Council still hasn't authorised the 2023 edition
BarcelonaA new chapter in the disagreements between Primavera Sound and the Barcelona City Council. In an interview with La Vanguardia, one of festival's directors, Gabi Ruiz, says that the Barcelona City Council "is not interested in the Primavera Sound" because "they are not making any effort" to carry out a proposal like the one they have planned for 2023. The proposal would be to replicate the 2022 model: a two-weekend festival in the Parc del Fòrum. "They have told us that they do not want this model, and we are currently looking for another city where to do it," says Ruiz, who adds that they have already opened an office in Madrid, a city where "there are many more opportunities"
The deputy mayor for Culture, Jordi Martí, said he was "surprised by the interview's tone". "A great Primavera Sound is being prepared for 2022 and we are still talking about the 2023 edition. It is a festival that is hugely linked to Barcelona and we want it to continue like this for many years. Primavera Sound and Barcelona is a success story", said Martí.
The main obstacle for the 2023 edition is precisely the change of model that the festival wants to carry forward. The pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 editions, and one of the formulae to make up for the lack of income was to propose a double festival in 2022, taking place at the Parc del Fòrum over two weekends: from the 2nd to the 4th and from the 9th to the 11th of June. Primavera Sound wants it to be a new model for the festival beyond 2022, and this causes a conflict over the use of public space in the district of Sant Martí and neighbours' rest. The conflict is not new: when Primavera Sound was held in Poble Espanyol, it already clashed with the City Council. It hoped to solve the issue by transferring to the Forum, a space that has also allowed the festival to grow. But there have also been problems in the Fòrum, such as being able to guarantee the rent of the auditorium two or three years in advance or the maintenance of the concert area on the marine platform (the space that houses the main stages).